Subtlety Rogue Abilities Guide - Forever

By warstry Updated: 2026/10/08 Reviewed by Simonize

All Subtlety Rogue Abilities in Forever Combo Point Builders for Subtlety Rogues

An instant strike that deals 100% weapon damage (scaled to 145% when using a dagger) and causes the target to take 15% increased Rupture damage from your Rupture. Costs 35 Energy and awards 1 Combo Point. This will be the standard builder for a Subtlety Rogue. The text implies that as long as you have a dagger in either hand, you will benefit from the increased damage. We have 2 talents that amplify Hemorrhage's damage in Lethality and Quietus (when the target is below 35% health).

Backstab

Backstab the target, causing 150% of weapon damage plus additional damage based on rank. Costs 60 Energy and awards 1 Combo Point. Requires you to be behind your target and have a dagger equipped in the main-hand. The high Energy cost will likely make Backstab a more burst-heavy PvP-oriented builder. We simply don't have the Energy generation to maintain our cycles while using Backstab.

Sinister Strike

An instant strike that deals additional damage on top of your normal Main-Hand weapon damage. Costs 45 Energy and awards 1 Combo Point. For Subtlety, this is more of a placeholder builder until you gain access to Hemorrhage.

Mutilate

Instantly attacks with both weapons for 75% weapon damage plus additional damage. Damage is increased by 20% against Poisoned targets. Costs 60 Energy and awards 2 Combo Points. Requires daggers in both hands to use. Subtlety likely won't venture far enough into the Assassination tree to make use of this builder.

Combo Point Finishers for Subtlety Rogues

Slice and Dice

Finishing move that increases melee attack speed by a % based on rank. The duration scales with the amount of Combo Points put into it. You should be aiming to maintain as close to 100% uptime as possible.

Rupture

Finishing move that causes you to apply a damage-over-time Bleed effect on your target. This lasts longer depending on how many Combo Points you invest into it. Subtlety features 3 ways to gain extra value out of Rupture: 15% increased Rupture damage from Hemo, 30% increased Rupture damage from Serrated Blades, and our capstone talent Thousand Cuts. All of these things working together suggest Rupture to be the optimal secondary finisher for any Subtlety Rogue and should see it dishing out some serious damage.

Eviscerate

Finishing move that causes damage per Combo Point. This is more of a situational finisher for Subtlety that will only really be used if you need to deplete your Combo Points quickly on a mob that is about to die.

Expose Armor

Finishing move that exposes the target for 30 seconds, reducing armor per Combo Point used. This should always be up on any target you are attacking if you don't have a warrior applying Sunder Armor. If you do find yourself having to apply Expose Armor, you'll want to invest the 2 points into Improved Expose Armor in the Assassination tree to reduce the Energy cost by 10 and refund 2 Combo Points when used at 5 Combo Points.

Kidney Shot

Finishing move that stuns the target. Duration is increased based on the amount of Combo Points invested. One of the primary use cases for this finisher is to interrupt a spell cast if your Kick and/or Gouge are already on cooldown.

Stealth Abilities for Subtlety Rogues

Garrote

Garrote the enemy, applying a Bleed to your target that deals damage over the next 18 seconds. Requires you to be in Stealth and behind your target. Subtlety's Garrote benefits from Dirty Deeds, which makes it only cost 30 Energy. You will likely be trying to open with this any time you can, as well as weaving them in throughout a fight with Vanish.

Cheap Shot

Stuns the target for 4 seconds. Requires you to be in Stealth. Costs 60 Energy and awards 2 Combo Points. Niche ability that can be used on any target that can be stunned. Cheap Shot also benefits from Dirty Deeds, making it effectively grant 2 Combo Points for only 20 Energy per Combo Point.

Ambush

Ambush the target, causing 250% weapon damage plus additional damage. Requires you to be in Stealth, have a dagger equipped in the main hand, and you must be behind your target. Costs 60 Energy and awards 1 Combo Point. Because of its high Energy cost, this will have a hard time finding any practical use in a PvE environment.

Sap

Incapacitates the target for up to 25 seconds. Only usable on humanoids that are not in combat. Sap no longer has a chance of breaking you out of Stealth every time you cast it! This means that you can reliably use this as a form of crowd control for your group or just to split up mobs when questing in the open world.

Utility Abilities for Subtlety Rogues

Kick

A quick kick that does a slight amount of damage as well as interrupting the target. If you successfully interrupt a spell, the enemy will be unable to cast another spell from that school of magic for the next 5 seconds. This is one of our main utilities that should be used liberally to interrupt pesky caster mobs and help bring them into the group. Unlike previous versions of Classic WoW, we do not lose our Combo Points just from switching targets. This means that as long as you do not build new Combo Points, you can tab over to kick an enemy, then tab back to your primary target and carry on your rotation.

Gouge

Causes a slight amount of damage, stops your auto attack, and incapacitates your target for 4 seconds. Requires the target to be facing you. This is another excellent interrupt that can be cycled in with your Kick and Kidney Shot to further lock down any caster mobs or deadly melee ability.

Sprint

Increases your movement speed for 15 seconds and does not break Stealth. An all-around great ability for covering large distances shortly and helping you to maintain uptime on your target.

Evasion

Increases your dodge by 50% for 15 seconds. If you pull one too many mobs or pull threat off of your tank, this ability can mean the difference between life and death.

Blind

Blinds the target, causing it to wander disoriented for up to 10 seconds. Any damage to the enemy will break this effect. Did your Sap break early and your group isn't ready to deal with that extra mob? No problem! Blind that target to give you a little more time.

Stealth

Allows the Rogue to sneak around, but reduces your speed by 50%. Lasts until cancelled. A staple ability for any Rogue/Thief archetype that allows us to sneak up to our enemy and grants access to the Stealth-specific abilities listed in the section above.

Feint

Perform a feint, causing no damage but lowering your threat by a small amount, making the enemy less likely to attack you. This functions as a slight threat drop in case you pull off of your tank, giving them a chance to retake the mob's attention.

Distract

Throws a distraction, attracting the attention of all nearby enemies and reducing their Stealth detection as if they were 1 level lower for 10 seconds. We've all had those deadly patrol mobs wander just a little bit too close to us and risk turning an easy pull into a difficult one. With enough awareness, you could toss out a Distract and buy just a little more time to get out of their pathway, or finish the enemy you're currently working on.

Vanish

Allows the Rogue to vanish from sight, entering an improved Stealth mode for 10 seconds. Also removes movement-impairing effects. This is our premier "uh oh" button, used to get yourself out of a sticky situation or dump aggro on a target. Also enables the use of abilities like Cheap Shot mid-combat to slow down the incoming damage taken. To be determined if you can still batch this with a melee swing, immediately drawing you right out of Stealth.

Pick Lock

Allows the opening of locked chests and doors. Allows us to bypass the need for certain keys as well as grants us the ability to open lockboxes for ourselves and allies.

Detect Traps (Passive)

Greatly increases the chance to detect traps.

Disarm Trap

Sneak up on the trap to disarm it. A staple of the Rogue's toolkit that made us required for things like the BWL's Suppression Room in the past

Safe Fall (Passive)

Reduces the damage taken from falling. Gives us a little bit more liberty with how far we can fling ourselves off of great heights.

Weapon poisons for Subtlety RoguesWindfury Totem

Crippling Poison

Each strike has a 30% chance of poisoning the enemy, slowing their movement speed by 50% for 12 seconds. This Poison is invaluable for any mobs that run away when they reach low health. This reduces the chance that they'll grab some more buddies for you to deal with.

Mind-numbing Poison

Each strike has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy, increasing their casting time by 40% for 10 seconds. Caster mobs are historically deadly in early versions of WoW, and this will slow down their damage output by up to 40%.

Instant Poison

Each strike has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy, which instantly inflicts Nature Damage. We'll have to wait for Beta to open the level cap to 30 before we're able to judge the optimal Poison application for our weapons.

Deadly Poison

Each strike has a 30% chance of poisoning the enemy, dealing Nature Damage over 12 seconds. This can be stacked up to 5 times. Just like with Instant Poison, we'll need to test this at level 30 when it becomes available.

Wound Poison

Each strike has a 30% chance of poisoning the enemy, reducing all healing effects used on them for 15 seconds. This can be stacked up to 5 times. Very niche use for any mobs that can be healed mid-combat. Likely more applicable in a PvP environment.

Subtlety Rogue Abilities Guide - Forever

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